Submitted by usernamehere on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 3:20pm.
I'm still a born and raised Southern Baptist, though not a member of my church of first baptism anymore.
One of the many tenets of being a baptist that I learned as a child was the "priesthood of the believer."
That meant no robed eminence overseas -- nor some stuffed shirt in Nashville, TN -- could come between you and the divine.
In recent decades, the stuffed shirts of the conventions have eroded that primary tenet of Southern Baptists with "position papers" on being gay and assorted other topics.
And every year those convention leaders become more like the "authoritarians in Rome" they railed against when they taught me how Southern Baptists were superior because of their stances on church autonomy and the priesthood of the believer.
Priesthood of the believer
I'm still a born and raised Southern Baptist, though not a member of my church of first baptism anymore.
One of the many tenets of being a baptist that I learned as a child was the "priesthood of the believer."
That meant no robed eminence overseas -- nor some stuffed shirt in Nashville, TN -- could come between you and the divine.
In recent decades, the stuffed shirts of the conventions have eroded that primary tenet of Southern Baptists with "position papers" on being gay and assorted other topics.
And every year those convention leaders become more like the "authoritarians in Rome" they railed against when they taught me how Southern Baptists were superior because of their stances on church autonomy and the priesthood of the believer.
Power is always an interesting thing, isn't it?